Chamber group offers annual performance

Works by Samuel Barber, Sergei Prokofiev, and Frank Bridge are
on the program for Sunday's annual free concert by The Chamber
Players. The concert starts at 2 p.m. in the Temecula Public
Library.

Sunday's performance marks the eighth annual concert for the
eight musicians -- Albert Ball and Susan Miyamoto on piano, Cindy
Broz on flute, Joe Ashworth on clarinet, Jean Clower on cello,
Janis Fuhr on first violin, Lois Leyva on viola and Sharon
Rollinson on second violin.

Ball said that, while the musicians may perform only once or
twice a year, they get together to practice all through the
year.

"The concerts are kind of a necessity to show what you can do,"
Ball said. "You want to perform. We're like actors. You do even
better when you sense the audience appreciates what you do."

Ball and Miyamoto will lead off with a piano duet on the ballet
suite from Barber's "Souvenirs." Prokofiev's "Sonata for Flute and
Piano in D major" will follow, with Broz on flute and Ball on
piano.

After an intermission, Ball will be joined by Ashworth, Clower,
Fuhr, Leyva and Rollinson for Prokofiev's "Overture on Hebrew
Themes for Clarinet, Strong Quartet and Piano." Bridge's "Quintet
for Piano and Strong Quartet with Ball, Clower, Fuhr, Leyva and
Rollinson will wrap up the afternoon.

Barber was an early 20th century American composer. Probably his
best-known work is "Adagio for Strings," used at the beginning of
the movie "Platoon." He wrote "Souvenirs" in 1952. It recalls the
tangos of the early part of the century.

Prokofiev was a Russian born in the latter part of the 19th
century who composed in the early and middle parts of the 20th
century. From 1938 until his death, he was one of the official
composers for the Soviet Union. He wrote "Flute Sonata" in 1943
after years of self-imposed exile. It is a combination, Ball said,
of a gaiety unusual for Prokofiev and the more fulsome style of his
symphonies. "The Overture on Hebrew Themes" was written much
earlier, in 1919 while Prokofiev was in New York. He composed the
piece after reading a book with Hebrew themes.

Bridge was an English composer who also wrote in the latter part
of the 19th century and into the middle part of the 20th
century.

"This chamber work is a fitting example of the care with which
Bridge approaches his compositions," Ball said. "It is full of
bold, dramatic gestures and exquisite lyrical passages."

Ball described the selections as "not esoteric." All of the
composers are well known and the Barber selection was popular when
it was published.

All of the musicians in The Chamber Players have been studying
music since they were children, and have distinguished themselves
in their fields.

Ball began playing the piano when he was 6 years old, and spent
a year after high school studying at the Conservatory of Music in
Paris.

He did not go into a musical career, however. Instead, he went
into the Foreign Service and served for 30 years. While abroad, he
gave concerts in Athens, Brussels and Tokyo. He has lived in
Temecula since 1992.